The Napoleonic Wars: A Very Short Introduction

Mike Rapport

Description

The Napoleonic Wars have an all-important place in the history of Europe, leaving their mark on European and world societies in a variety of ways. In many European countries, they provided the stimulus for radical social and political change--particularly in Spain, Germany, and Italy--and are frequently viewed in these places as the starting point of their modern histories. In this Very Short Introduction, Mike Rapport provides a compact overview of these pivotal wars. He begins with the French Revolution and the French Revolutionary wars of 1792-1803, which set the stage for the rise of Napoleon, and then examines the Napoleonic Wars in two acts--the years in which the French dominated the European landscape and the years when an allied Europe fought back, leading
to Napoleon's final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Rapport sheds light on the social, political, and institutional aspects of warfare in the Napoleonic era, and he provides a fascinating discussion of the ways and means with which these wars were fought, looking at the tactics, strategies, and weaponry of the time. Finally, he illuminates the significance of the wars, and their legacy, in both specific national contexts and from a wider global perspective.

About the Series:

Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides
trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.

The Napoleonic Wars: A Very Short Introduction

Mike Rapport

Author Information

Mike Rapport is Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Stirling. He is the author of The Shape of the World: Britain, France and the Struggle for Empire and 1848, Year of Revolution.

The Napoleonic Wars: A Very Short Introduction

Mike Rapport

From Our Blog

By Mike Rapport
Modern wars, someone once wrote, are fought by civilians as well as by armed forces. In fact, it is of course a truism to say that civilians are always affected by warfare in all periods of the past Ã¢â¬â as the families left behind, by the economic hardship, by the horrors of destruction, plunder, requisitioning, siege warfare, hunger and worse. The involvement of civilians in modern wars, however, became more intense because, with the advent of Ã¢â¬Ëtotal warÃ¢â¬â¢, belligerent states began to mobilise the entire population and material resources of the country. The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars were an early example of the ways in which a modern war could grind millions of people up in its brutal cogs, whether as conscripts in the firing lines of EuropeÃ¢â¬â¢s mass armies and
navies, or as civilians caught in the path of the oncoming battalions and trapped in the crossfire of the fighting itself. At the Oxford Literary Festival on 24 March, I will be

Mike Rapport
The Duke of Wellington always has a traffic cone on his head. At least, he does when he is in Glasgow. Let me explain: outside the cityÃ¢â¬â¢s Gallery of Modern Art on Queen Street, there is an equestrian statue of the celebrated general of the Napoleonic Wars. It was sculpted in 1840-4 by the Franco-Italian artist, Carlo Marochetti (1805-1867), who in his day was a dominant figure in the world of commemorative sculpture. Amongst his works is the statue of Richard the Lionheart, who has sat on his mount and held aloft his sword outside the Houses of Parliament since 1860.